Mon, November 17, 2008 7:00 pm at Alwan for the Arts

Join Sherif Sadek for a screening and discussion of his latest documentary

Free & Open to the Public

El Bondera (Egypt/USA, 2008, 45 min, video, Arabic with English ST)

Sherif Sadek's El Bondera was part of the Museum as Hub: Antikhana exhibition and premiered at the New Museum to a full house on September 6th, 2008.

In a city as highly populated and congested as Cairo, hostility runs high as an adequate standard of living seems to be out of sight for the average worker, particularly the Cairo taxi driver. Driving a taxicab in a city with so many people is seemingly a lucrative trade; ferrying people around all day in one of the busiest cities in the world. Not bad, right? 'No', say these drivers, some of whom have been cab drivers for over 20 years. El Bondera chronicles the story of two cab drivers, Ashraf and Ibrahim, along with their peers as supporting characters, as they focus viewers' eyes on a world of the inadequate fare meter system and their day to day struggle to survive.

About the DirectorCairo-born and New York-based, Sherif Sadek has been has been making shorts since 1999. After graduating with a B.A. in filmmaking from Rochester Institute of Technology, he returned to his native Egypt to work on a documentary film about the nomadic Arab/African tribe of the Bisharin. The Bisharin, who are thought to be the descendants of the Beja tribes of Ancient Egyptian fame, extend from the southern borders of Egypt all the way to Somalia, along the Red Sea coast. In late 2001, Sherif returned to New York, working on documentaries on Arab-Americans in post-9/11 America, the Iraq War, and Latin gangs in Los Angeles.

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3rd i NY & Alwan Collaborative Monthly Screening Series are made possible in part through support from The Fund for Creative Creative Communities administered through the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.